Israel News

The bloody end to a massive rally in Gaza Monday marking the third anniversary of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat’s death is seen as underscoring the disunity of the Palestinian people whose aspirations for their own state are proving more and more elusive.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ruled out Tuesday an imminent large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip to put an end to the repeated Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israel, explaining that it would scuttle the upcoming Israeli summit meeting in Annapolis, Md., with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Barak was responding to mounting pressure for a military response following the firing of three rockets last week at the city of Sderot, one of which struck a house and another a power line, knocking out electricity to the city.

On Sunday, 12 years to the day that he gunned down Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, Yigal Amir was celebrating his son’s brit in a tent set up on the grounds of the Rimonim prison near Netanya, where he is serving a life sentence.

The next day, every media outlet in the country showed images of a clean-cut Amir smiling and waving to supporters with his right hand and holding the bassinet with his left.

Jericho, West Bank — Dressed in freshly pressed uniforms, officers stroll through the new school toting briefcases stuffed with course packs for classes in information technology and Hebrew.

Wake-up is at 5 a.m., and the daily schedule includes lineups, weight training and lectures. It is a place of order, discipline and timetables — concepts not usually associated with the Palestinian security forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s popularity edged up in the polls this week following a hastily called press conference at which he disclosed that he had prostate cancer but intended to attend the Israeli-Palestinian summit meeting later this year in Annapolis, Md., before having surgery to cut out the cancer.

Tel Aviv — The iconic but crumbling Bauhaus building just off the Ayalon freeway in south Tel Aviv resembles the bridge of a ship, a tribute to the Jewish immigrants who reached pre-state Israel in boats.

In the last three months, an abandoned basement pub and a construction site at the same building have become a makeshift absorption center for dozens of illegal African migrants and an embodiment of Israel’s most sensitive immigration dilemmas as the state nears its 60th anniversary.